This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2004-0099030, filed on Nov. 30, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of lysing a cell using a free radical.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, free radicals have adverse effects on organisms, particularly on their cells. Free radicals attack a cell wall at a rate depending on the cellular resistance provided by an enzymatic or a molecular mechanism of the cell. When the cell wall is decomposed by free radicals, holes are generated and contents of the cell flow out.
Cell lysis is typically performed using a mechanical, chemical, thermal, electrical, ultrasonic, or microwave method (Michael T. Taylor, et al., Anal.Chem., 73, 492-496 (2001)).
A chemical method includes using a lysing agent to destroy a cell and release DNA from the cell. An additional process of treating the cell extract using a chaotropic reagent is required to denature the proteins. In this method, rough chemicals are used to destroy the cell. Since there is a probability that they can inhibit a subsequent polymerase chain reaction (PCR), DNA must be purified prior to performing the PCR. This method is labor-intensive, time-consuming, requires expensive supplies, and quite frequent, a recovery yield of DNA is low.
An electrical method uses dielectrophoresis. When a non-uniform electric field is applied to a neutral particle, such as a microorganism cell, the neutral particle is polarized and due to the non-unifomity of the electric field, a force is applied to the particle. The force induces a movement of the suspended cell, thus lysing the cell. However, cell lysis efficiency is low and high electrical power is required, and thus, this method is not suitable for a lab-on-a-chip (LOC).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,693 describes a composition which can inhibit generation of free radicals and a method of increasing intracellular and extracellular antioxidant effects. The patent describes an antioxidant which inhibits the actions of the free radicals, but it does not describe a cell lysis method using free radicals.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,850 describes a method of assaying or evaluating antioxidant activities of a living organism using free radicals. The patent describes cell lysis using free radicals, but it does not describe cell lysis using an electrochemical method.
The present inventors conducted research on a method of lysing a cell or a virus, based on the prior technologies, and discovered that by using an electrochemical method which is a combination of an electrical method with a chemical method, both of which are known in the art, an amount of free radicals produced increases and thus, the cells can be efficiently lysed.